The efficient and accurate distribution of medication in a hospital is an extremely important facet of patient care. In a typical hospital setting, medication orders are initiated by a physician, who contacts a pharmacist in the hospital's pharmacy. In response to the physician's request, the pharmacist enters information into the hospital's pharmacy computer system, which is typically implemented on a mainframe computer. The pharmacy computer system maintains a database of information concerning each patient in the hospital and performs a number of functions necessary to enable the pharmacy to efficiently distribute medications. For example, the pharmacy computer system maintains information on each patient, such as the patient's location in the hospital, whether the patient has any allergies to medication, the diagnosis, if any, for the patient, the patient's primary physician, the patient's personal data (height, weight, age, blood type), the date of admission, and so on. Further, the pharmacy computer system maintains a database of medications which may be ordered by the physicians. This database may include, for example, the NDC code for the medication, the manufacturer, the brand name, the generic name, the dosage form, the location of the drug in the pharmacy, and pricing information. For each medication ordered for a patient, the pharmacy system maintains a database of the medication ordered, the frequency of administration, start and stop dates (and times) for administration, and the nursing station to which the medication should be delivered. Pharmacy computer systems have been widely available since at least 1985. Their availability has greatly increased the accuracy and efficiency of the hospital pharmacy.
Based on the information in the pharmacy computer system, the pharmacy prepares the medications for each patient. Carts containing the medications are brought to the nursing stations, where the nurse retrieves the medication for his or her patients and then administers the medication. Typically, a separate container holding the medications for each patient are provided on the cart. To aid the nurses, a medication administration report (MAR) is provided from the pharmacy computer system, so that the nurse can verify that each patient has received all scheduled medication. Some common medications, such as pain relievers, are kept at the nursing stations for retrieval by the nurses.
This approach has significant problems. First, it is very time consuming and subject to human error. Second, it offers a very low level of security. Third, it has no means of accurately accounting for medication taken by the nurses, or other medical staff, from the nursing stations.
Some systems have been designed to increase security somewhat by providing a number of drawers, each containing several medications, which may only be opened after an authorization process. However, these systems can hold relatively few medications and cannot provide accurate accounting of the number of medications withdrawn from a drawer. Therefore, they provide little additional benefit.
Therefore, a need has arisen in the industry for a medication distribution system which reduces the time spent by pharmacy personnel and nursing staffs, with increased accuracy and accountability.